Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
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Anger
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*/Heart Check/*
*/ /*
*/Sunday March 30, 2008/*
* *
When is the last time you checked the oil in your car? (There is oil in my car?)
When is the last time you had a physical, had your furnace checked, your blood pressure checked?
Easy to let those things go.
I am not here to make you feel guilty for maintenance issues – but there is a more important issue for all of us today, an eternal issue.
Every once in a while, we need to stop and check the condition of our hearts.
Health check up; oil check; balance your checkbook.
Good ideas, every so often!
I was strongly impressed by the Holy Spirit to set aside the message ~/ series that I had prepared for today.
Who knows about next week?
It is a good time to look back, look forward and look around.
“How am I doing?
Where am I going?”
I want to ask a similar question that is easy to overlook, */“What is the condition of my heart?”/*
“Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.”
*Pr.
4:23*
 “Guard your heart” We like clean water, clean air.
We wouldn’t drink from a contaminated well – we would guard that well, because that would be our source for water.
Our hearts can be filled with all sorts of sin, all sorts of things that contaminate our lives.
They may not even be visible to anyone else, they may be “hidden” – but they are real, and they are poisonous!
To us and to others.
Today, we are going to get out a “spiritual stethoscope” to take a look inside.
God pointed out to ME that I had drifted; that my heart had grown cold.
I am not proud of that, but it is true.
Maybe you could use what God has given me too.
*/Open your Bible to the table of contents./*
In the Old Testament, there are a group of 12 books called the Minor Prophets.
They are not minor because they are unimportant, but they are called minor only because their books are short.
Their messages were powerful.
Joel 2 (we’ll get there in a minute)
 
Prophet does not only = prophet as the man who predicts ~/ foretells the future.
The role of the prophet was to call God’s people back to the original commands of God.
Over time, people drift away from where they ought to be, where they want to be, and the role of the prophet in the Old Testament was to call God’s people back.
A Police Officer, given the job of enforcing (not making) the laws.
12 “I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness,
and you will harvest a crop of love.
*/Plow up the hard ground of your hearts/*,
for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come
and shower righteousness upon you.’”
*Hosea 10:12 NLT*
 
Land was allowed to lie fallow that it might become more fruitful; but when in this condition, it soon became overgrown with thorns and weeds.
The cultivator of the soil was careful to “break up” his fallow ground, i.e., to clear the field of weeds, before sowing seed in it.
The expression means, “Do not sow your seed among thorns”, i.e., break off all your evil habits; clear your hearts of weeds, in order that they may be prepared for the seed of righteousness.
So says the prophet, “Break off your evil ways, repent of your sins, cease to do evil, and then the good seed of the word will have room to grow and bear fruit.”
/Easton’s Bible Dictionary/
 
Springtime!
(By faith!)
If you are going to plant a garden this year, you won’t have much success if your plan is to put some seed in the ground without preparing the ground first.
The first step is to pull the weeds (yay!) then break up the clean ground.
Then, you can plant and expect a harvest.
“Clear your heart of weeds”
 
~*Key point: this is something that we are to do!
We cannot ask God to plow up the hard ground; this is something we must do in our own heart.
A farmer is responsible for the condition of his fields, and the ground that he cultivates.
He cannot ask someone else to do what he alone must do.
We are responsible for the condition of our hearts.
No, you and I each have ownership of this piece of ground, the piece that is in our hearts.
If it is hard, we must soften it up, plow out the weeds.
I must do it!
You cannot control what happens */to you/*; but you must control what happens */in you!/*
 
Good ground, left alone over time, will become covered over with weeds!
Our hearts, over time, can become hardened and covered with the weeds of sin and neglect.
This plowing up the weeds, breaking up the hard ground is:
Repentance.
We hear that word, but what does it mean?
To repent means to “turn around”.
To do a U-turn.
To turn from our sin */and/* to turn toward God.
Both aspects are needed to make repentance real.
Repentance:
Ø      isn’t just feeling sorry for our sin
Ø      It isn’t feeling bad that we were caught.
It is a heart cry for inner change!
/Onetime there were two brothers.
One was an outstanding citizen and the other was a convict.
The convict brother killed a man, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
His brother who was well respected went to his friend the governor and pleaded for a pardon for his brother.
Since the governor respected the murderer's brother he issued the pardon and gave to his friend.
The brother went to the prison and visited with his sibling.
Before he told his brother he was pardoned, He asked him, "What would you do if you were released?"
His brother replied from his cell, "First, I would kill the judge, then I'd murder the chief witness against me."
Upon hearing this his brother ended the conversation, walked out of the prison with the pardon in his pocket and gave it back to the governor.
You see his brother hadn't repented.
He hadn't had a change of heart.
The opportunity was granted to him to go free, but it called for repentance.
Since there could be no repentance, there also could be no pardon./
Ø      It isn’t just a one time thing that we do when we get saved
Sin, and repentance, are things that we will have to deal with for the rest of our lives on earth (unfortunately).
Repentance, then is a turning from our sin:
Ø      Grieve over it (blessed are the poor in spirit).
We become broken-hearted over our sin.
We take it seriously.
God hates sin because of what it does to us.
Like a parent who would hate the cancer that would take the life of his child.
Ø      Confessing our sin to God.
Agreeing with God that we have sinned.
Ø      Asking God for */inward/* change – not just on the outside.
Unrepentant sin leads to a hard heart!
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